The Third International Buddhist Conference on the United Nations Day of Vesak has supported the idea of distributing Tipitaka, or Buddhist scriptures, more widely, especially to various hotels all over the world.

The idea was raised by Mr. Egil Lothe, President of the Buddhist Federation of Norway during the conference on May 9 at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok. Chairman of the Joint International Organizing Committee of the UN Day of Vesak, the Most Venerable Professor Phra Dharmakosajarn, said that the idea came after Mr. Lothe had noticed that Buddhist teachings in the form of Tipitaka were not available, unlike the Bible, in various hotels in Thailand and Sri Lanka, where the majority of people are Buddhists. Mr. Lothe proposed that the conference form a committee to select interesting and concise Buddhist teachings to be printed in the form of international Tipitaka and distributed to various hotels.

He called for the production of more teaching aids and materials for Buddhist study among young people worldwide. Another proposal was that greater attention should be put on taking care of prisoners with Buddhist teachings, so that they would no longer take to a life of crime. In this proposal, Buddhist monks should go to see prisoners more frequently to give them sermons and offer Dhamma teachings.

The President of the Buddhist Federation of Norway also called for the stepping up of public relations campaigns for the International Buddhist Conference. He proposed that such a conference be held on a continual basis but the scope should be scaled down, so that particular topics, such as Buddhist study or dissemination of Buddhism, would be discussed more deeply for concrete results.

Meanwhile, Venerable Dr. Jin Wol Young H. Lee, President of the United Religious Initiative of South Korea, called on Buddhists to exchange dialogues with people of other faiths. Phra Dharmakosajarn quoted Dr. Lee as saying that there would be no peace in the world without peace among religions. He said that, in order to achieve world peace, people of any faiths must seek to understand the essence of their religions first and have no prejudice against others.

Phra Dharmakosajarn said that Luang Pho Panya of Wat Chonlaprathan in Nonthaburi Province, expressed his support for the idea of distributing more widely international Tipitaka, as proposed by the President of the Buddhist Federation of Norway. Speaking at the conference, Luang Pho Panya also called for publishing more books written in English by the late Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, who is recognized as one of the world?s great personalities by UNESCO. He said that Buddhadasa urged people to free themselves from materialism and not to be greedy. Buddhadasa believed that materialism and greed would hinder sustainable development.

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